Stuck in a Time Loop: When All Else Fails, Be a Villainess Volume 1

Stuck in a Time Loop: When All Else Fails, Be a Villainess #1

by Sora Hinokage, Tsukasa Kiryu (Illustrator), Andria McKnight (Translator)

Selene Vixent has died nine times. In every life, she’s been betrayed by her fiancé, abused by her noble family, and laid low by an untimely end all because she was unable to awaken the power of Sun, a so-called protective gift passed down in her family. Yet Selene is determined to escape this cursed time loop and, after her ninth demise, abandons any further attempts to be a good girl. She awakens to the power of Shadow—seen as an ominous portent of misfortune—and fully embraces her new life as a villainess.

But Selene’s dark path is about to take another strange turn when Dier Veldt, the former crown prince, reveals that he knows all about her time loop. He even offers his help, but under one she must kill him in exchange. With her newfound villainy, can Selene break free of this endless time loop once and for all?

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy

241 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 21, 2023

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t work for me. DNF

2, wish I hadn’t bought this one, stars.

[Mystic DreamClouds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another time loop, regression story where the main character decides to change. Selene Vixent has died nine times and each time she was betrayed by her fiancé. In her tenth time loop, she decides to stop this cursed loop and take control of her life. She starts by awakening her power of Shadow and becoming the head of the house. Later she meets with the former Crown Prince, Dier Veldt who joins her goal of stopping the loops.

I don’t know what I expect from these regression stories anymore, but maybe it’s the comfort of knowing what’s going to happen. This story uses a unique concept with the abilities given to each household and how they all interact with each other to protect their Kingdom. There’s no malice between the houses which was a first because that’s a typical plot point in similar stories.

The execution of this story is very messy. Selene’s change of heart on the tenth loop was not explained well; it felt random. Her previous loops were mentioned but lacked clarity and structure. Also Selene didn’t use her powers in any of her previous loops, so it was weird how she was able to use them so well in her tenth. The mystery regarding their powers, Selene’s loops and Dier’s inability to die were also plot points but they were disconnected. They didn’t connect or support each other but felt like three separate instances.

The pacing of this story varies and the writing lacks finesse. Told primarily in Selene’s perspective and rarely in Dier’s, the story feels overall underwhelming. The descriptions and justifications were mainly missing and when present lacked execution. The conversations and interactions felt awkward and misplaced until the ending, when they started to feel more natural. The action scenes felt almost childish in writing.

There are mentions of death and suicide in this volume. I do not support this and if you’re having these thoughts you should reach out to the proper individuals for support. Remember, there is always someone who cares about you even if their way of showing it is not what you expect.

Overall this story was okay but not the best one in its genre. It could use quite a bit of improvements. I will likely continue the series because I don’t like to keep incomplete ones but also I think the mystery was intriguing to an extent. I also felt bad for Dier so I’m hoping he gets a happy ending.

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[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I stuck it out til about 50%, but it was poorly written and the plot didn’t make sense. You have a set up where a specific power is inherited in the same family, and then that denotes the next head of the house, as apparently the newly awakened power is taken away from the current head? So it’s as each family only has X amount of power, and as one grows into it, the other grows weaker. This makes no sense. Also, that means anyone else in the family doesn’t have any power. But for some reason her ex fiancée was slated to be the head of his house, and the head of the water house also proposed….shouldn’t the heads of each house NOT intermarry?? The powers were also weird - water, air, earth….and then stars, sun, shadow, and moon. And whatever the boy king has 🙄 notice that fire isn’t in there, but when they looked at a painting depicting the 6 original “guardians” there was one in flames. Did the author forget?

FL has been experiencing a time loop and dying over and over. So this somehow gives her the courage to just say F it and go dark. Naturally she can immediately use her power for high level combat despite never having used it before. And no one questions the treatment her father tried on her (literally told the knights to dismember her if necessary, and in previous life starved her to death). Everyone is basically crappy except for the one random guy that turns out to have immortality somehow. Whatever, can’t be bothered to care. Water guy insta-loved her because he could see her true self, but apparently it was hate at first sight for her. And of course, you find out that she can just steal other peoples abilities 🙄🙄

ML thought she was badass for not giving up, but….she has, it just didn’t get her any result. Also, something she has not considered is that if someone realizes that she is being looped, they can just keep her alive, but miserable. There is actually such a thing as a fate worse than death. The bad writing is like…there’s one part where the king tells her that now she is the third person to know his secret and she asks “someone besides me knows?” And he only smiled, neither confirming or denying. What does it mean he didn’t confirm or deny? He straight out told her there is at least one other person that knows, assuming he is the third person himself. It was stupid to even ask the question let alone act as if he was being secretive.

[Pieter · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. The story and characters just did not click with me. Restarted the same loop several times (none of which are detailed), suddenly deciding to become the villain (basically: embracing her own cursed power), and then we get a very quick string of (violent) events with powers that have no clear definition/limitation and appear somewhat unlimited, but not well thought out. I prefer a slower paced story with a bit more world building especially when it comes to magic systems. Like I said, just not the story for me.

[Alarna · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was ok. :/